The New Jersey Devils got more bad news this week when it was announced defenseman Dougie Hamilton will miss the rest of the regular season with a lower-body injury.

Prior to Hamilton being sidelined, the Devils were hammered with another injury to superstar center Jack Hughes, who had shoulder surgery. Defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler will also miss the rest of the season with a lower-body injury.

The worst part, though, is that Hughes and Hamilton are not unfamiliar to being injured for long periods of time. That should raise questions about the long term.

Hamilton appeared in only 20 games last season, and he’s only played two full 82-game seasons since 2018-19. Meanwhile, Hughes will have missed 20 games this season and last year. Since the shortened 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, he played 49 games in 2021-22 and 78 in 2022-23.

Let’s add to this the fact that Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom and captain Nico Hischier have also been injured for part of this season. If one player were hurt for many years, that would be one thing. But so many key competitors going down this year will almost certainly hamper their playoff hopes.

New Jersey Devils 'Just Have To Press On' Without Injured Hamilton, Hughes And Siegenthaler The New Jersey Devils face an added challenge in their quest for the Stanley Cup playoffs and beyond.

You can chalk up Hughes’ and Hamilton’s inability to play full seasons to unfortunate luck. But the pattern of bad health may have to be addressed by Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald – particularly, if New Jersey gets eliminated early in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

Might it be in their best interests as a franchise to pursue players in the off-season who have a history of being workhorses and stay off the injured reserve list? And would it be worth trading Hamilton to acquire that type of player?

Now, Fitzgerald isn’t going to deal Hughes. He’s too talented of a player to give up on. But the Devils’ significant depth on ‘D’ might make Hamilton expendable.

At 31 years old, Hamilton is signed for another three seasons after this one at $9 million per year, and there would be many teams interested in his services at that price tag. So why not explore what could be picked up in return for Hamilton? Fitzgerald is under no pressure to move Hamilton right away, but if he could acquire a forward or defenseman with a long history of playing 80 games a year, that should serve the Devils’ big-picture needs.

We’re not here to dump on Hamilton. But sooner or later, you need your best players to stick in the lineup if you’re going to do great things at the NHL level. Because of their slew of injuries, New Jersey is now going to be a huge underdog to thrive in the post-season. 

If there is another year of disappointment, Fitzgerald and the rest of Devils management and ownership may have to make the difficult decision to tweak part of their core to build a reliable winner. One or two injuries here or there would be one thing, but so many injuries should force the Devils to at least weigh the benefits of going in a different direction.

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